Afghan president Hamid Karzai confirmed the crash, sending his condolences to American forces. The chopper was fired upon during a night raid over a village in Afghanistan’s Wardak province. Up until now, the deadliest crash took place back in 2005, when, similarly, a rocket took down a Chinook aircraft carrying 16 troops on a rescue mission. Among those killed were 25 Navy SEALS. You can watch the report on ABC News.
In this horrible game of life and death, it’s important to remember that for every successful mission there will be tragedies like this. So take a moment to think of the families of those who lost their lives in this endless war. [WSJ, ABC News]
Photo: AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus
Update: According to sources for the Associated Press, 20 of the Navy SEALs killed in last night’s crash were members of SEAL Team Six, the group now famous for taking out bin Laden. This, too, is their greatest loss of personnel. [AP]
Merc
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 1:06 PMInteresting how SEAL Team Six were the ones taken out. Security leak anyone?
Steve
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 3:03 PMThis is a catastrophic loss. 20 of possibly their best men in a horrible event. It does seem awfully suspicious. Not to go all Tom Clancy on it, but how possible is it for someone to sell out their information, to be used in a symbolic revenge.
Sean
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 5:55 PMIt is extremely unlikely. Special Forces don’t get to be the best in the business by neglecting their opsec. It’s just a fact of life that if you are out every night raiding the enemy, one day they are going to get lucky and cause you some losses.
That is assuming it was even shot down at all. Most helicopters lost in Afghanistan are lost in accidents.
Will
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 6:14 PMThat’s a shame. Hopefully the guy who triggered OBL wasn’t on board.
Doug
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 6:35 PMSo let me get this straight…
Osama Bin Laden was killed by a team of SEALS known as Team Six.
The photos of Osama Bin Laden killed where never released as they were deemed a security risk…
2.5 months after Osama was “killed” the team who where meant to have killed him get shot down by an insurgent “missile” (where do “insurgents” get “missiles”?)
I usually laugh at conspiracies, but this seems a little too convenient… And after seeing how stupid, self-serving, and blind to their constituents many members of the US senate are with the whole debt thing, i could actually see this bullshit happening
Potatoman
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 8:36 PMYou sir, are an idiot. There are more than 20 people in SEAL Team 6 and, according to other sources, NONE of those involved in the Bin Laden killing were killed in this event.
p4nTsm4n
Monday, August 8, 2011 at 7:58 AM—where do “insurgents” get “missiles”?—
An RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade)IS a Missile.
After the AK, the RPG is pretty much the iconic and standard weapon of the insurgent arsenal, hundreds of them are fired in Afghanistan every month.
olearymo
Monday, August 8, 2011 at 9:08 AM‘Where do they get missiles’? Are in insane? Do you really think these people just have knives and pop guns?
They get them from the black market. They get them from left over caches from the war they fought with the Russians. Surface to air missiles are ridiculously easy to purchase.
I’m as skeptical about anyone about a lot of this stuff, but really… reality check.
pd
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 9:29 PMLargest loss of military lives? Please show some care for the civilian deaths by adjusting your headlines. In the first 6 months of 2010, over 300 civilians were killed by pro-government forces. That figure alone dwarfs the loss of lives from this incident.
http://tinyurl.com/257pq2n
monster
Monday, August 8, 2011 at 12:03 AMDamn straight! Get your facts right Gizmodo.
olearymo
Monday, August 8, 2011 at 9:09 AMYeah gotta agree here. I would think Giz would be above the usual ‘Americans are human, Afghans aren’t’ thing the US media is so fond of.
wsDK_II
Monday, August 8, 2011 at 9:05 AMPraise Allah!
olearymo
Monday, August 8, 2011 at 9:11 AMEither you’re trying to be funny and ‘ironic’, in which case you’re just coming across as dull and moronic, or you’re praising God for peoples’ deaths.
Either way, wtf?